Overall pecan purchases are down 11.1% from last season with pecan imports dropping a whopping 21.5% while US Pecan purchases are down 6.6% for the season. It should be noted that the data referenced in this statement is representative of the adjusted totals from the APC’s latest corrections, and does not accurately reflect the monthly data reports. 

 

While purchases are down when compared to last season a snapshot of the inventory shows that it is currently up 7% over last year. Inventories actually fell in February and March but then recovered between March and April when US Pecan purchases spiked as shellers bought more pecans to shore up the lagging inventories. 

 

The recent drop in purchases has likely been due to the uncertainty in the economy as Covid-19 has shutdown economies across the globe sending many businesses and industries into a tailspin. As we are now moving out of the first wave of economic shutdowns and economies open back up around the globe, we see that the pecan industry has weathered the storm quite well, actually increasing demand over last year during the same period. These are traditionally slower times of the year for pecan shipments, however shipments actually rose during the economic shutdown. 

 

 

 

Foreign purchases are also down from last year. Imports have been slightly less each month this year when compared to last season, with November seeing the biggest drop in foreign purchases. However domestic purchases are not outpacing last year as you might expect. For the season, US pecan purchases are down from last year by 6.6% with April however, seeing a big spike in US purchases. Based on the APC adjusted cumulative totals total pecan purchases are down 36,628,998 lbs. With imports dropping just over 21 million pounds and US purchases dropping just over 15 million pounds so far for the season. 

 

Even though on the farm purchases are down, shipments continue to rise even through the pandemic that has crippled many industries. Pecan shipments have risen 8.3% over last year. Earlier this month we reported a rise in shipments of 3.8%, this was based on the data from the monthly reports as submitted. New adjusted data from the APC shows an adjustment in the data of 14,636,163 lbs for the current season, moving the new shipment data to an increase of 8.3%.